Two good paragraphs:
Paragraph 1:
Start with a great, short, clear first sentence as an answer
to this question:
Should Mike Anderson have to serve his 13 years?
Why? Give me three or four sentences explaining why or why
not.
Paragraph 2:
Continue your answer about Mike by bringing in your thoughts
on the point of prison in general. What is the point of prison and how does
that relate to Mike's situation?
ALL YOUR OWN OPINIONS!
This American Life
Ira Glass
Feb. 14, 2014
Mike Anderson was 36 years old, married, a father of four. He owned a construction business. He built houses, and he even built his family’s three-bedroom home in St. Louis from the ground up. He volunteered at church on the weekends and coaches his son’s football team.
All more or less normal.
Except for one thing.
Last summer he was home alone. His wife was away on a business trip. It was about 6 o'clock in the morning. Mike was woken by knocking at the door. It was unusual knocking, consistent knocking, hard knocking.
Mike stood at the top of the stairs for a moment, called "who is it?"
"Police" answered the voice behind the door. "Open up or we're coming in."
Mike opened up the door.
There was eight of them. They had the shields. They had the helmets. They had the AR-15 style machine-looking guns. And they had the street blocked off. They were there to get Mike.
They got him.
They arrested Mike without a struggle.
And Mike knew why.
He called his wife from prison and told her her what had happened. She was in tears. She had a lot of questions. She had no idea why Mike was in jail. She was sure there must have been some sort of mistake.
There was a mistake. Mike should have been in jail all along.
In 1999, Mike was arrested for armed robbery but he never served his time. He was 22 years old when he and a friend held up a Burger King. The manager was making a night deposit, had all the money from the day, and Mike and a friend took the money. This wasn't a case of mistaken identity or wrongful conviction. Mike was there. Mike did the crime.
Mike says he got caught up with the wrong crowd that night. Until then, he had no prior convictions and worked a full-time job. In court, Mike testified that the robbery wasn't his idea and that the gun his friend was holding was just a BB gun.
The police never actually recovered any weapons, but Mike was convicted of armed criminal action and robbery. The judge sentenced him to 13 years in prison. Mike filed a series of appeals. But in the end, the courts decided he had to serve his sentence.
The day he was sentenced, Mike wasn't actually in court. His lawyer was there for him. Mike was at home. He was out on bail.
And then something strange happened. Mike should have been taken to prison that day. Police should have arrived at his house and taken him in. But an arrest warrant was never issued. There was a mistake in the paperwork. The paperwork said that Mike was already in jail, that he wasn't out on bail. Because of the paperwork error, no police were sent to Mike's house.
Mike was shocked. "Why aren't in jail?" he thought. "What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to turn myself in?"
"Well," Mike thought "It was their mistake. They'll figure it out soon."
But as the weeks went by, no one came to pick up Mike. Weeks turned into months, months into years. Mike went back to school. He became a master carpenter, he got married, he had children. He wasn't hiding. He travelled, had a passport, had a driver's license, and a social security number. He never had any other problems with the law.
Then, after 13 years, the police came to his door.
They had realized their mistake. The way they actually realized it was that Mike's name came up as ready to be released. Guards were told to find Mike Anderson and ready him for release. The guards said that there was no prisoner under their watch named Mike Anderson.
Oops.
Mike sat in prison. He missed his daughter's birthday. He missed Christmas. He missed his wife's anniversary, his business began to fall apart, and he missed the football season. For 6 months Mike was in jail, everyday he would tell himself that he would be released. But everyday, he became less and less hopeful. The judges had said that Mike hadn't served any jail time, and that he would need to serve his full sentence.
The manager of the Burger King was interviewed. He said that after the robbery, his life began to fall apart. He was scared that the people who robbed him would come after him because he had called the police. He lived in fear. He drank a lot, couldn't sleep, and his marriage fell apart.
The manager of the Burger King also said the it was Mike's fault.
Then the manager of the Burger King said that the robbery was a terrible event, and no more lives should be ruined by it. Not Mike's, not Mike's family. The manager of the Burger King also said that he had been drinking for years before the robbery, and that his marriage was never all that great to begin with.
Mike's wife would say this: "Thirteen years without going to prison did exactly what you'd hope 13 years in prison will do for a person. Mike reformed. He became a model citizen-- which raises the question, do we want to send him to prison? If Mike is no longer a danger to society, what's the point of having him sit in a cell, when he could be out working, paying taxes, and raising his kids?"
It costs about 20 000 dollars a year to keep someone in jail. Outside of jail, they pay taxes.
Mike's family hired a lawyer. A new judge agreed with the lawyer, and after 6 months in jail, Mike was released for good.
